Feed-board hump for printing presses



May 18 1926.

J. B. ROCHE FEED BOARD HUMP FOR PRINTING PRESSES Filed Feb. 15, 1926Patented May 18, 1926.

la'itifitti PATENT OFFHCE.

JOSEPH B. ROCHE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FEED-{BOARD HUMP FOR PRINTING PRESSES.

Application filed. February 15, 1926. Serial No. 88,439.

My invention relates to means for smoothing out wrinkles in paper whilebeing fed over the feed-board of a printing press.

In the hand feeding of sheets of paper to a flat-bed printing press, itis usually difiicult to eliminate wrinkles in the paper with sucheffectiveness as to insure a clear impression on all portions of eachsheet. With some grades of paper, this difficulty is not sul'iicientlyserious in single color printing to warrant the permanent attaching ofany wrinkle-eliminating device. However, it usually is serious inmulti-color work, as even slight wrinkles will interfere with the properregistry of the variously colored impressions.

In its general objects, my invention aims to provide a simple andinexpensive wrinkleremover which can readily be attached to, or detachedfrom, the feed-board of a printing press, which can readily be adjustedto feed boards of different widths, and which will not be in the way ofthe man feeding the paper.

Furthermore, my invention provides a wrinkle-remover in which the papersmoothing portion is constructed of metal and not easily marred orindented, and in which the attacl'iing means can readily be secured tothe feed-board without defacing or damaging the smooth upper face of thefeed board.

More particularly, my invention provides a wrinkle-remover in which theattachment to the feed-board is made adjacent to the opposite lateraledges of the feed-board, and in which the attaching means are slidabletransversely of the feed-board with respect to the portion or portionsof the appliance which smooth out the wrinkles. It also provides a papersmoothing portion consisting of two slidably interfittmg parts ofclosely approximating cross-sections which can be slid upon each otherto vary the effective length of the wrinkle-eliminator according to thewidth of the feed-board on whichthis is to be used, and provides anarrangement whereby one of these interfitting parts may be used alone onfeed-boards of relatively small widths.

Still further and also more detailed objects will appear from thefollowing speciication and from the accompanying drawings, in which Fig.1 is a perspective view of a portion of a printin press, showing theoperative disposition or a wrinkle remover embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the wrinkle remover of Fig. l and ofadjacent parts of the feed-board.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged transverse section taken through the same wrinkleremover along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2, or through both of its slidablyinter-fitting smoother portions.

Fig. at is a plan view drawn on the same scale as Fig. 2, showing theuse of the same wrinkle remover, without the outer pair of slidablyinterfitting parts, on a narrow feedboard.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged horizontal section taken through Fig. 2 along theline 5-5 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged perspective View of one of the attaching meansemployed for securing the wrinkle removing portions of my device to thefeed-board.

In the illiiistrated embodiment, my feedboard attachment comprises apair of slidably interfitting wrinkle-removing members 1 and 2, and apair of clamps, the clamps being slidably connected to the said members.Each of the smoother members desirably consists of a tube ofacute-angled triangular section and of a clamp guide mounted in itsbore, the outer of the two members having a sufiieiently thin wall sothat the exposed surfaces of the inner and outer members will extendalmost in the same planes.

As illustrated, the outer tubular member 1 has a flat bottom wall 3which is seated on the feed-board 4 when my device is in use, arelatively short riser wall 5 facing the bed of the printing press, andan upper wall 6 which slopes upward from the paper receiv- .ing end ofthe feed-board toward the paper grippers of the press at an acute angleto the top of the feed-board. This outer tubular member is preferably ofmetal, and the inner companion member may be of metal also. In thedrawings, this inner member consists of a tube similar in itscrosssectional shape to the outer tubular member but sufficientlysmaller so as to fit slidably into the bore of the outer member.

The inner member carries a guide which desirably extends longitudinallyentirely through it, as shown in Fig. 5, and which may consist of astrip of metal 7 of inverted U section provided with oppositely directedflanges 8 which seat upon and are soldered to the base wall 9 of thesaid inner member. Thus arranged, the U-section of the said stripcooperates with the adjacent portion oi? the base wall 9 in affording aguide tube extending lengthwise of the said inner mem her, ortransversely oi the 'leed-board. The outer member has a similarlysectioned strip 10 fastened to the inner face of its bottom wall 3, butthis guide strip 10 extends into the outer member from one end of thelatter for only part of thelength ot' the outer menn ber, as shown inFig. 5, ,o as to permit the inner member to he slid into the outermember to a considerable distance from the other end of the latter.

To secure the two-part wrinkle remover to the feed board, I provide apair of clamping members, each constructed as s-iown in Fig. 6. Eachclamping member comprises a still shank slidably fitting the bore'oi oneof the above described guide tubes and having one end bent downwardlya'nd then recurved to afford a lower clamp end 12 through which athumb-screw is threaded, this thumbsscrew desirably having an enlargedswiveling head 1 L atits upper end.

In using my illustrated device on a feedboard,considerably wider thanthe length of the inner member 2, I slide the latter sufticiently. intothe bore of the outer member 1 so t-hat the assembled length of the twotubular members will= be greater thanthe width of the sheets which areto be fed over them, but less than the width of the feedboard. Then I.slide the shanks of the two clamping members respectively into the guidetubes from the free ends of the two tubular members until the clamp ends15 abut respectively against the lateral edges oi the feed-board. Whenthe thun'ib-screws 13 are thentightened, these clamp the entire devicerigidly to the feed-board.

By having the guide tube in the outer tubular: member rather short withrespect to the length of thismember, 1 permit the in ner member to beinserted into outer: mem ber for a considerable distance, therebyallowing my. device to be adjusted to feedboardsdiffering considerablyin width. Moreover, the inner tubular member can be used alone on narrowteed-boards with the slianks of bothclamping men'ibers extending intothe opposite ends of the guide tube in this inner tubular member, asshown in Fig. 4.. Hence my device can readily be employedinterchangeably on feed-boards of widely varying widths. ll loreover, byproviding relatively long shanks 11. on my clamping members I canreadily permit the wrinkle remover to be disposed at some dis tance fromthe edge of the feed-board which is adjacent to the press feeder, so asnot to interfere with hnn in lns feeding the sheets.

hen my. device is in use, as shown in Fig. 1, it is positioned with theupper faces of the tubular mem ers sloping upward toward the printingpress proper, thereby causing the assembled tubular members (or thesingle one it only one is used) to term a hump, with the fed sheet 16 ofthe paper dipping down as it passes the top of the incline. In beingdragged over the upper edge 17 of the tubular member or members, thepaper sheet has any wrinkle cti'ectively smoothed out oi. it.

However, while I have heretofore described my invention in an embodimentin which both oil the wrinl-;le-removing mem here are tubular and onehaving a desirable form oi guide tube construction, I do not wish to belimited to these or other details of the construction and arrangementthus disclosed. Obviously, many changes might be made without departingeither from the spirit of my invention from the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. F or use with the feed-board of a flatbed printing press, a wrinkleremover seated upon and extending transversely of the feedboard near thedelivery end of the said board and having its upper face sloping upwardfrom the top of the said board toward the said delivery end, and'twoclamping means respectively associated with opposite ends oi the wrinkleremover for detachably clamping the latter to the feed-board, at leastone of the clamping means being slidable on the wrinkle removertransversely of the feedboard.

For use upon the feed-board of a liat bed printing press, a tubularwrinkle remover disposed transversely of theieedboard the said tubularwrinkle remover being or substantially triangular transverse section.with one wall seated on the feed-board and with another wall slopingupwardly at an acute angleto the aforesaid wall towards the delivery endof the feed-board; and a pair of clamping means slidably connected tothe said tubular member and respectively clamped to opposite lateraledge portions of the teed-board.

3.- A teed-board attachment as per claim 2,

in which the wrinkle remover comprises two llO ter, the said tube havinga fiat base wall on the delivery board and another face sloping upwardfrom the top of the said board toward the said delivery end at an acuteangle to the first named face, an inner tube of similar transversesection extending for part oi? its length into the outer tube andslidably fitting the same, guides respectively disposed in theoppositely directed ends of the two tubes; and two clamps each having ashank extending into one of the guides and each having another portionarranged for securing the clamp to the feed-board.

5. A wrinkle removing device as per claim l, in which each guidecomprises a metal strip oi? inverted U-shaped transverse section arryinga pair of oppositely directed flanges, the said flanges being secured tothe upper face of the base wall of one of the said tubes.

(3. A wrinkle removing device as per claim 4:, in which the guide in theinner tube extends for substantially the entire length of the tube andin which the guide in the enter tube extends for a relatively short partof the length of the outer tube.

7. For use with the feed-board of a fiat bed printing press, a Wrinkleremover seated upon and extending transversely of the feedboard near thedelivery end of the said board and having its upper face sloping upwardfrom the top of the said board toward the said delivery end, and meansfor detaclr ably clamping the said wrinkle remover to the feed-board;the said means comprising two clamping members each having a shankextending slidably into the wrinkle remover from one end of the latterand adjacent to the top of the teed-board, each clamping member alsohaving an end portion hooked over one lateral edge of the it'eedboardand a clamping screw threaded through the said end portion and engagingthe bottom of the feed-board.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, January 30th, 1926.

JOSEPH l3. ROCHE.

